Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 – Is The Sound Card Really Dead?

Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5

The Sound BlasterX AE-5 packaging carries the packaging concept we mentioned previously which is instead of sleek minimalist design like we see with many other higher performance audio devices. It shakes things up with a more edgy RGB laden packaging to try and connect with the “gamer crowd” which definitely could make it stand out when on the shelf.

The rear of the package offers information on the discrete headphone amps along with other key features. Even in multiple languages which is quite impressive to have 4 languages worth of spec coverage on a small box. They are pretty efficient in their text usage to get the point across.

Here is everything that comes in the box. the accessory box opens up to reveal the following.

5x pamphlets covering warranty, quick start and welcome guide

1x RGB connection/Extension cable

1x Addressable RGB Strip

Here you can see the front and rear of the card. There is not much to see here as it has a metal shield over the front, likely to help shield EMI and ensure nothing interferes with your audio quality.

The rear is PCB with no plating on the back so you can see solder points poking through along with a white silk screening on the PCB to give it a less plain and more aggressive look.

Enough of the outside now, let’s tear her apart and take a look at the guts.

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Review Overview

Time to look at what feels like an old friend Before we dive into the new Sound BlasterX AE-5 we must do a little archeology. Put on your time traveler hats as we look back into the origins of PC as I grew up with. I an remember the beginning days of my PC experience. It was ISA slots and several KB of onboard RAM. Yea that's right, back then we did not judge or even think of memory in Megabytes but in Kilobytes.. Motherboards back then also were very barren for connectivity with only the basics such as a…

Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 – Is The Sound Card Really Dead?

Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 – Is The Sound Card Really Dead?

2018-11-30

Shannon Robb

Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5

Value - 8.5

Performance - 9.5

Innovation - 9

Quality - 9

90

9

The Sound BlasterX AE-5 is an impressive audio solution offering an experience far beyond what we found possible by even high end motherboard audio solutions.